Mid-Week Photos - 7/19/2017

Thank you for getting the ball rolling this week, Jdevleer! This morning was a great time for me to sleep in.  The humidity is lifted a bit, and I just could not shake off the sleep like I wanted to.  

Anyway, I promised to wrap up the RailCamp 2017 photos this week, and so here I am.  For the Thursday and Friday of RailCamp, we were back on the road to Strasburg, PA.  At the Strasburg Rail Road, the kids were exposed to all sorts of railroading.  

We assembled trackside before getting the safety briefing.  

Every year, there is at least one!  Jon jumps on the Thomas the Tank Engine ride.  Of course, one of the other guys had a quarter to get the train moving

As always, a safety briefing takes place outside the locomotive shop. Rick Musser, in yellow, talks about the life on this railroad.  It is as real as it gets, even though the distance is not the same as on a Class 1 RR.  Ryan Merrill, in light blue, also explains railroading from his side of operations. 

Number 90 sits outside the shop. She will get a thorough scrubbing throughout the day, and get a new fire on Friday.

Similarly, the Cagney steam engine sits outside her shop, with steam pressure coming up.

The Lancaster Oxford & Southern car 10 would be run by every camper that day over a short section of track. 

The first group I followed, took a tour of the restoration shop. This is a different building from the locomotive shop.  

Two years ago, this Baltimore & Ohio car was taken out of her 'cocoon' and restoration had just begun.  Things are coming along well. 

More photos in upcoming posts.

I'm back.  Another part of the restoration shop is the machine work.  Since the railroad wants to show off how the machines do their job, and give the kids a hands-on task, each boy gets to engrave his own railroad spike. 

Then, it's a move-on to running a train.  in 1/8th scale.  After a history lesson, and explanation on how she works, each of the boys gets a chance to run. 

This Cagney was built to run in Coney Island.  It was bought from a man in Pittston, PA. 

Henry is the first at the throttle.  Alex Merrill is in charge of the smaller steam engines.  

This looks like Cole running the Cagney over a short trestle. 

This is Carlos.  The route is shortened this year, due to rebuilding of the J tower on the north end of the Strasburg RR property.

A little talk with the guys at the ash pit before the campers go to lunch.

All revved up and no place to go, some of the guys burn off energy at the hand car. 

Testing the limits of my phone's camera after a pizza night with some buddies in Wheaton, IL last Friday night:

Rusty

Sunday, July 16th was a good day to railfan in the Altoona,PA. area.
2.5 hours in the morning at several locations on NS's Pittsburgh Line on the West Slope of the Allegheny Mtns. yielded 10 trains and several helper sets.
Chasing 2 trips of the Everett RR's 2-6-0 #11 filled the afternoon nicely, I love coal smoke!

All images by Warren W. Jenkins

These are just a small sample of the 400+ images from the day, I will be posting more.
If I had shot film like this in the old days, I would have been bankrupt in short order...

Continuing with the RailCamp photos.  The boys all got a chance to get dirty after lunch by changing out a handful of ties.  You gotta love when kids don't shy away from honest hard work.

They also learned some of  the skills involved in railroad communication and coupling/uncoupling cars.

While the kids aren't so thrilled with the group photos, they do appreciate seeing each other in them.  A lot of these kids will now be friends for life. 

And another group completes this task.